Multiple Choice Quiz

A guy named Cameron at MIT is working on his PhD, and in the spirit of intellectual inquiry and academic solidarity I took his weblog survey yesterday. That's why I'm displaying the 'Bell Curve' icon on the blog today.

Cameron's computer scanned my blog and presented me with five random links. Then he asked me what purpose the links served. Were they links to other blogs? If so, were they blogs of friends or acquaintances? Why did I provide that link - for fun/amusement or knowledge/information?

(Note to Cameron: For an intellectual, knowledge/information = fun/amusement!)

Cameron also wanted to know about my Instant Messenger habits. He presented me with a list of IM clients, but the client I use all day long at work (Sametime) was not listed. And there was no 'other' checkbox. So Cameron missed data on the 200+ people on my Sametime 'buddy list' and how often I write to them and about what. I don't know what the focus of Cameron's thesis is, but this is potentially a big hole in his data.

Lastly, Cameron's survey neglected to gather qualitative data. I would have written a blogging story for him, or at least a few sentences, if he had asked. But he didn't. Before I started my program, I never would have noticed these things.